From the ministry archive
Understanding God's grace is a thing of great spiritual balance
Understanding God's grace is a thing of great spiritual balance. Grace is like a tight wire, and we don't want to lean to one side or the other, because both of those sides are away from grace, and they are dangerous. One scripture tells us the importance of abiding in grace: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8,9). So the only way we can be saved is by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus came from heaven and lived, died, and rose again so that we would be able to have access into the grace of God that saves the soul. And because he did these things we can surely trust in him fully to do for us all that is needed for us to be saved, and to be blessed on the way. On one of the wrong 'sides' of grace we have the 'works' mentality, which Paul addressed in the cited scripture. So in knowing that we cannot be saved by our own works, it begs the question, What are our own works? Fist of all the scripture is clear that God's saving grace was not available until Jesus came and made the way: "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (Jn. 1:17). And once more for good measure: "That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 5:21). So the point here is that ANYTHING that could be done by ANYONE before Jesus came and died at Calvary, and rose from the dead, constituted 'works.' Did people before Jesus have faith? Of course they did, but their faith could only be manifested BY THEIR OWN WORKS! To understand what I mean, let's just talk about the contrast of how faith manifested in old testament believers, and how it manifests in true new testament believers. Jesus spoke of how faith in him would be manifested after he went back to heaven, in those that believe: "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. [But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.]" (Jn. 7:38,39).
Jesus was clearly saying here that all who believe on him would have a spiritual experience inside them that involves his Spirit coming forth in the person. Before his death on the cross Jesus prepared his disciples with the understanding and expectation of this spiritual experience: "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you" (Jn. 14:18-20). Directly before he said these things he told them that he would send his Spirit back to them after he went away (Jn. 14:15-17). Note that he told them here that when that day came they would know that he was IN the Father, and that they were IN him, and he IN them. So this is what we're getting to: The grace of God by faith in Jesus Christ imparts Christ himself, as well as the Father, into all who truly believe on him. THAT was NOT available to ANYONE before Jesus came and paid that terrible cost for our sins, and conquered death for our sake. So let's see just how it IS available to us now. In other words just how DOES Christ get imparted to us by faith? "Now the Lord IS that Spirit" (II Cor. 3:17). We know it takes place by having his Spirit because Jesus said that clearly when he was here, as we've also read from the scriptures. "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have PUT ON Christ" (Gal. 3:27). So it is baptism that literally adorns our spirits with Christ, meaning with his Spirit. But water baptism was in effect BEFORE Jesus died, rose again, and went back to heaven. That means that water baptism is a 'work' that someone can do themselves, which is to say it is not directly 'of faith' (Gal. 3:9,12). In fact water baptism was of the law, meaning the old covenant, and Jesus said that it was (Mat. 3:15; Mat. 5:17). But John the Baptist and Jesus both told us about a baptism that JESUS would baptize with, and they said it was by his SPIRIT (Mk. 1:7,8; Acts 1:4,5).
It only stands to reason that we can "put on Christ" through baptism, if that baptism is of his Spirit; seeing "the Lord IS that Spirit." And 1 Corinthians 12:13 nails it down really tight for us on the matter: "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." So true faith in Christ produces the baptism of the holy Ghost from Jesus, which is always evidenced initially by "speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance," like it was when it first came from heaven (Acts 2:1-4). That is the 'living water' flowing from the belly, or innermost being, that Jesus said would happen with all who believe. When we receive the Spirit of God into us through this glorious baptism from Jesus, THEN we have the reality spoken of by the apostle Paul: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain" (Gal. 2:20,21). The same apostle also told us in the same book what the result of trusting in works is: "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace" (Gal. 5:4). By the Spirit baptism we have Christ living in us and through us as long as we stay free from sin in our spirits. And as the apostle stated, the law, which is what was in place before Christ came, could NOT do that! The baptism of the Spirit is the baptism of faith, and it is the reality of the grace of God (Acts 15:8,9; Gal. 3:14). God was IN no one before Christ accomplished these things. His Spirit was WITH certain people like prophets, priests, judges, and kings before Christ; but no one was washed from their sins by that "river of living water," because Christ alone could make that available by his death and resurrection. But by faith in Jesus we now have access into marvelous grace, whereby we have a new reality, namely this: "For it is God which worketh IN you both to will and to do of HIS good pleasure" (Philip. 2:13). God is in us along with his Son, by means of us receiving the "Spirit of life" that indwells both of them and literally sets us free from sin (Rom. 8:2; Eph. 4:6).
That is how Jesus said that he and his Father would "make [their] abode" in those who believe (Jn. 14:23). This is also how he said that believers would know how that he is in the Father, and we are in him. We are in Christ the same way that Christ is in the Father, by means of having that same "Spirit of [eternal] life." The Spirit is eternal life itself, and eternal life was not available to anyone before Christ; but is now available by God's amazing grace. So it is the pure graciousness of God on a pitiful fallen world, that he would give his Son up to a cruel death, so that we could share literal eternal life with them (Jn. 3:16; Rom. 8:32). That eternal life is now in those who believe, and it will be fulfilled in totality when that same eternal life raises us from the dead to be immortalized with Christ at his coming (Rom. 8:11; Philip. 2:20,21; I Cor. 15:52-54; etc.). Now I said all of that to say this about the 'works' side of grace, which is not an element of grace; but rather is away from grace. Understanding what sincere faith in Christ produces, we can understand the following statement of Jesus, which ends the works mindset totally: "Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" (Jn. 6:28,29). The only person who can work the works of God is Christ himself, and if we believe on him as he said to believe, then he will be IN us doing the works THROUGH US! So the 'works' of God CANNOT be done by a human being, except he have Christ IN HIM! Right there is the difference between old testament believers manifesting faith, and new testament believers manifesting faith. New testament faith literally manifests the Son of God in and through us, even as Paul cited in Galatians 2:20. And as he also cited in the very next verse, if THAT faith could have been manifested by any means BEFORE Christ came, then as he said, "Christ is dead in vain." WOW! I have to tell you, I am just overwhelmed by this, and I hope you are too! What God has done and made available to all men through his Son, is as overwhelming as it gets! I mean, c'mon; God Almighty and his Son dwelling inside of men by the same Spirit that dwells inside both of them? Are you kidding? That is just crazy good stuff!!
Okay, what this means is that if we are observing and regarding natural ordinances like water baptism, so called 'communion,' Sabbath days, fasting, or any other 'work' that was done before Christ died and rose, and went back to heaven; then we are veering away from grace. It's just that simple. The ONLY thing we can do that is acceptable to God is believe on what Jesus has done and be baptized by him through that faith, and afterward just continue to abide in, and walk in the power of his Spirit. Paul simplified it like this: "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him" (Gal. 2:6). And again: "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16). In fact ANYTHING that we are 'trying' to do for God that is apart from the Spirit of God, is neither of faith or grace. Now the other wrong side of grace would be the 'sinners saved by grace' mentality, which basically claims that we aren't accountable for our sins even though we remain sinners; because we 'believe' in Jesus, and he '"did it all for us." Well, first of all, knowing that grace means we believe on Christ unto being baptized by him with his HOLY Spirit; we should really understand that we do NOT receive the HOLY Spirit so that we can remain in an UNHOLY state. I mean, c'mon now, are you kidding me? If you believe that hogwash, I can tell you that someone is surely kidding you. Nonetheless, let's allow the infallible authority of the HOLY scriptures to settle that matter for us really fast: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? ... Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin... For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid" (Rom. 6:1,2,6,14,15).
Honestly, if that doesn't knock the 'we're all sinners' mentality out of anyone who's been believing that stuff, then I'm just afraid I can't help you at this time. Nevertheless we'll give it one more heave-ho just for really good measure: "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works" (Tit. 2:11-14). I really can't add any commentary to that. It's all right there in front of us, and it's all about GRACE! So knowing what God's grace really does for us by our faith in Christ, we can better understand the words of the apostle Peter, who said; "But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they" (Acts 15:11). It comes back to the fact that we can only be saved by grace, but there's more to grace than just the word, and what someone chooses to think it means. So the one side away from grace is trusting in any kind of 'works' that could be done before Christ by human effort or ceremony. The other side away from grace is to actually believe that God's grace is an excuse, or a license for remaining in sin. Nothing could be further from the truth in fact. The tight wire that we need to walk is simply to be filled with the holy Ghost, and remain purified from sin by the empowerment of that same Spirit. Also in referring to grace as a tight wire, I only say that for the sake of understanding the spiritual balance of grace; not because it is difficult to abide in the grace of God. As John told us: "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous [hard to do]" (I Jn. 5:3). So much more could be said, but I think that covers the bases for the moment. God bless.
